WHOLE LOTTA BABY

I just saw the photo of the largest baby born in Indonesia--19.2 lbs.--and it brought back memories of labor with my daughter who was born 10.3 lbs, 22 inches.

My OB/GYN guesstimated that she would be between 7.5.-8 lbs, but NO! First of all, I was two weeks over my due date with no signs of labor at all when she decided that I needed to have this baby! So the date was chosen and I showed up at the hospital at 6am; I was induced at 7am. Along with the Pitocin injection, the nurse gave me something else that caused me to doze off from time to time and have very vivid, Alice-in-Wonderland-like short dreams and mumble non-related curse words while dosing off (embarrassing, but oh so funny!) Since I had no previous labor pains, I didn't know what to expect. When the pain came--WHAM--it came! Yes, I had an epidural; but the pain was B.A.D.! When my water broke, the nurses started to put me in several different positions to push, and it was discovered that my daughter was transverse (the baby is shoulder or back down instead of head down). Okay, so at the time I didn't know that it is almost impossible to birth a baby this way without a c-section. So the nurses had me push and push and push while they tried to turn her the right way. That zapped my energy. Then I had to push and push and puuuuuussssssh to give birth. At about 7pm I asked them, exasperated, HOW MUCH LONGER! "About 20 minutes", I was told. LIED TO! Not only that, they had shut off my epidural. HELL NO! At about 8pm I growled that someone had better give me an emergency c-section or I was about to die!! At 8:30 I told them I was so exhausted and I just couldn't push anymore. The nurses told me to get pissed. Hell, I was already pissed! Thank God Andrea was born at 8:39pm, upon which time the doctor said that my baby was going to be a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers--then he saw her hoochie-cooch and said, "Or not". He was holding a 10+ pound baby with wide shoulders, and I was relieved that it was over. Now I have a beautiful 8-year old daughter that was worth the pain, frustration and exhaustion.